Fans ought to blame an absence of defensive stress for Carlton’s draw with Richmond somewhat than making Jesse Motlop a scapegoat, Blues skipper Patrick Cripps says.
Motlop, 19, performed on at centre half-back within the final 90 seconds, somewhat than slowing the play as Carlton held a six-point lead.
Motlop fired a fast handball to Lochie O’Brien who surged ahead and bombed inside 50, earlier than Tiger defenders chopped the ball off ahead Harry McKay to discover a levelling aim with seconds left.
But Cripps mentioned it was unfair to single out that one determination, as an alternative pointing the finger at himself and the remainder of the workforce for failing to cease Richmond’s run.
“As a team, with not long left on the clock you want that composure, especially coming out of the (defensive) 50 metres … we can find another mark there and help set up the ground, (that) would be ideal, ” he informed Fox Footy.
“It’s probably different if there’s four or five minutes left on the clock and you’re trying to win the game … but if Harry marks that we’re probably not talking about it.
“But everybody appears on the stuff with the ball, there’s lots of selections, me included, behind the ball how we might have squeezed the bottom up.
“Mistakes happen in games, that’s the nature of footy but there’s definitely things behind the ball we could have done better to fix an error like that.”
Cripps echoed ideas shared by Blues coach Michael Voss, who mentioned Carlton sides of season’s previous would have misplaced comfortably in the identical circumstances.
Richmond received the within 50s 66-45 and marks inside 50 11-5, with the Blues’ stout defence discovering a strategy to restrict them
“We lost the territory battle in terms of inside 50s, we put our defence under a fair bit of pressure,” Cripps mentioned.
“Our defensive systems, particularly our back six, held up … they had 60-odd inside 50s, to be able to absorb that and absorb their momentum, in previous years, it could have been six or seven goals in a row.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
